Sims made three foul shots a minute-and-half into the second half to give the Blue Raiders (4-14, 1-4 Conference USA) a 50-31 lead. The Blue Raiders led by double digits for most of the remainder before Keaton Wallace made back-to-back 3s and UTSA trailed 80-75 with 67 seconds left. Middle Tennessee secured it making 9 of 12 foul shots.

UTSA buried 12 of its 14 3-pointers in the second half. The Roadrunners finished with 37 attempts from beyond the arc while the Blue Raiders were 13 of 29 from long range. The difference was at the foul line where the Blue Raiders were 22 of 28 to 4 for 7 for UTSA.

James Hawthorne added 20 points for Middle Tennessee.

Jhivvan Jackson led UTSA (10-8, 4-1) with 25 points and Wallace had 24 with 10 rebounds. Jackson’s 3-pointer at the buzzer was as close as UTSA had been since 11-9 4½ minutes into the game.